Tor didn't know the protocol here, waving gold around was rude, but she certainly had a right to know that they weren't going to steal their dinners too. Rolph strode up and smiled charmingly at her.

“Perhaps a price estimate would be in order? What do you think ten meals with wine would likely come to?”

The woman took a half deep breath, her mouth forming lines around it from the pursing action that made her look older than her real years.

“About five coppers apiece for the lot, unless you get the most expensive items… So five silvers for the group, not counting desert or second helpings of wine. Harder spirits being extra.”

Smiling Rolf pulled several golds out of his pocket, the coins glittering in the late afternoon sun, since it was early still. They didn't want to miss the places working hours though. The woman smiled then and let them in.

So, sometimes it was OK to show gold, but you hid it from your friends and just showed the merchant? All right, now he just needed to find out if there were other rules involved too. Country rules were a little easier for him still. In Two Bends, there wouldn't have been a restaurant, so this whole scene wouldn't have happened at all. Much easier.

This wasn't, Rolph assured them, the most expensive place in town by any means, but the food was good and filling and they made a wonderful cold pie of cherries and cream. It sounded lovely to Tor, but he'd probably skip it himself. Places like this tended to serve way too much food for him to begin with. Or he guessed that would be the case, if they were charging five pennies per meal. That or the food would be better than the King’s table itself.

The food was good enough, not as good as what was served at the palace, but then what was? Tor had made better, but what he made wasn't always as good, he had to admit. The server was polite enough and good at her job, after they got past the hurdle of the front door. The place was wide open, with no dividers or separate eating rooms. It seemed rude to look around at the other people overly. Instead he stared at the ivory colored linen table cloth and focused on the people closest to him, Rolph was talking to Sheri about what classes she was taking, Music, math and culture, so not too different than what Tor had himself, he thought.